StellaBa Posted September 27, 2017 Share Posted September 27, 2017 Hi everyone. I'm a non-US undergrad planning to apply for PhD programs for 2018. My field of interest is in developmental psychology. I took the GRE a few months ago, and got a 164(v)/170(q)/4(w). I'm pretty content with the verbal and quant scores, but a bit insecure about my writing. Some of my target schools are in the Top 5 (Harvard, Stanford etc) Should I invest some more time with GRE and try to improve my writing score? Or should I just focus on writing a better SOP? Thanks in advance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandmaster Posted October 2, 2017 Share Posted October 2, 2017 I could be wrong as I have not gone through a Ph.D. app process yet (also applying for 2018) however, I think that while the writing score is a little low for some of those programs (they probably have averages of a 5) I would not retake and spend the time wowing them on your SOP and Writing sample. I doubt they would even take a second look at the writing score after reading good submissions of writing as pieces of the application. Just my non-expert opinion though. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Epaphroditus Posted October 2, 2017 Share Posted October 2, 2017 On 9/27/2017 at 6:01 AM, StellaBa said: Hi everyone. I'm a non-US undergrad planning to apply for PhD programs for 2018. My field of interest is in developmental psychology. I took the GRE a few months ago, and got a 164(v)/170(q)/4(w). I'm pretty content with the verbal and quant scores, but a bit insecure about my writing. Some of my target schools are in the Top 5 (Harvard, Stanford etc) Should I invest some more time with GRE and try to improve my writing score? Or should I just focus on writing a better SOP? Thanks in advance! Those schools in the top 5 will definitely want to see a higher writing score. If you're set on going to one of those schools, I would take it again to improve your writing to at least a 5. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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